General – Ba'al

February 28, 2023

BA’AL’S FAVOURITE VIDEO GAMES OF ALL TIME

Alongside being well into riffs, turns out the five of us are also well into video games. Is anyone really surprised? Below, each of us has said some words about our top ten games of all time – enjoy.

Richard – Bass

Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer

I’ve decided to order my list chronologically; this was the first proper video game I ever played, when a work colleague of my dad’s gave me her old PS1. It took me about a year to 100% complete as an 11-year-old and I got fully sucked into its colourful world. In particular I’ve always loved how every level has its own distinct and cohesive style, with Stewart Copeland’s incredible score to match. I played through it all again in a week as a student in 2012, and then blasted through the whole Reignited trilogy on PC in 2020. The nostalgia is real, and this is the game that set me up as a gamer.

Spiderman 2

I borrowed this game from a school friend not long after I got my PS1… and kept it for probably about 8 years (I finally bought my own copy a few years back). Rather than playing through the game in order, I mostly used to put in loads of cheats and play my favourite levels over and over again. I just loved the simple combat (especially throwing people off buildings), the badass bosses, and of course the iconic swinging physics.

Worms Armageddon

Worms games are the only competitive multiplayer video games I can confidently say I am actually good at, and can defeat even my most trigger-happy, elite CS:GO-mastering friends – and it started here, with a game I played first on PS1 and later got on PC as well. The humour mixed with the relaxed playstyle and fun tactical options make this a never-ending joy, and one that set me on a path to collect several of the follow-ups over the years. I still sometimes while away hours setting up four-team matches and playing as all four teams myself… (PS1 sidenote: I was very sad to have to cull MediEvil from this list to make 10 – another superb early game in my life.)

The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

I am ashamed to say that I got sucked in by many film tie-in games over the years – especially during my PS2 period – many of which are terrible. However, a few stand out as excellent, and the LOTR film games are undoubtedly amongst the best. Hacking hordes of orcs as all of your favourite LOTR characters and executing unreasonably cool combo moves doing so… Does it get any better? The answer is yes: doing it all again co-operatively with a friend, as I used to do often in early secondary school. Saying that, my partner and I went back to this recently and got stuck at Helm’s Deep, so there you go.

Star Wars: Jedi Academy

Both Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy were obsessions for me for a while as a teenager, and whilst the more challenging former is probably the better game, I think on balance I found Academy slightly more enjoyable. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t partially to do with all the lightsaber choices you get (dual wielding purple and orange was my pick, for the sheer audacity), but it’s also all more expansive, colourful and immersive.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

If I had to pick one, Oblivion would definitively be my favourite game of all time. A friend gave me a cracked copy of it for my laptop in about 2009 (every game in this list I played several years after it was first popular… I was a late gaming bloomer) and I immediately had no free time anymore. As my first open world game experience, it absolutely blew my mind and fully sucked me in with its vast scope, geography and diversity in quests, characters and items. Though, of course, I also love Skyrim, Oblivion just feels somehow more varied and richer. My excitement for the long-awaited Skyblivion project to be released is almost uncontrollable…

Minecraft

At the same time that I got into Oblivion, the same friend got hold of an early copy of Minecraft and we played a lot of both games in the sixth form common room during free periods… I hope no teachers are reading this. Even in its earliest form, when you had to manually type code to give yourself resources to use, a group of three of us were totally absorbed by this new boundlessly creative experience we had access to. It was like dicking about with MS Paint and Lego combined, but in an endless 3D space, and it was amazing. The same three of us would play it until 3am during holidays from university in the following years – I still have a copy of that old world we built saved on my current computer. During the first year of the pandemic, I started a new server with one of the same people and someone new, and the love started all over again. Though I often go years without playing and I really don’t have the creative skill that you see in insane builds on YouTube, Minecraft never fails to bring me joy and calm (until those green bastards show up and blow up your shit).

Sleeping Dogs

Though I love both the Grand Theft Auto and the Saints Row series, it’s actually Sleeping Dogs that takes the cake for me in that sphere of free-wheeling, open world, gang-based havoc. It nails all the important parts of the genre (great driving, plotlines that make you feel like a badass, dank radio station options, the ability to go on an extended and brutal crime spree for absolutely no reason) but adds two extra elements that make it even greater: a) it’s set in contemporary Hong Kong and is aesthetically incredibly pleasing, and b) it’s got a complex and incredibly cool martial arts combat system built into it, which is far more fun than any of the gun play.

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun

I actually have Nick to thank for tipping me off to this one, which I played in 2020 for the first time on his recommendation and loved. Though I’ve yet to get stuck into any of the classic stealth games that inspired Shadow Tactics (the closest I’ve really come is Hitman), I can’t imagine any of them topping it. It’s a top-down, real-time tactical stealth game with multiple heroes to cycle between in each level, all set in absolutely gorgeous feudal Japan. I absolutely loved taking my sweet time hiding in bushes and planning complex manoeuvres to infiltrate and assassinate, finding myself lost in mental calculations and extreme concentration for hours at a time.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War

Shadow of War is another game that I only played in recent years but immediately adored. I love Assassins’ Creed (ACIII nearly made this list), and the Middle-earth games take the super-fun mechanics of those games into the LOTR universe, with Shadow of War taking all the best parts of its predecessor and amping them up hugely. The endless generation of unique orc captains with different skills, weaknesses and associated quests and locations, plus the nemesis system that promotes orcs that defeat you, meant that I spent many more hours hunting down and humiliating orcs who were getting too big for their boots and forcing them to join my army to fight their friends for me than I did doing the main quests. Truly endless entertainment that never gets old.

Joe – Vocals

System Shock 2

The spiritual successor to the popular Bioshock series, playing System Shock 2 back at the turn of the millenium is an experience that has stayed with me. A truly eerie game, the well voice acted audio logs, the hybrids pleading with you to kill them as they attack you, The Many and Shodan being truly disturbing antagonists, all in a time before internet access was easy and spoilers were prevalent, the twist part way through the game and Shodan’s reveal was something 14/15 year old me found genuinely terrifying.

UFO: Enemy Unknown / X-Com Terror From The Deep

The original X-Com games were masterful in turn based strategy. I’m cheating a bit by selecting two for one category, but sequel TFTD is essentially the same game but wetter. I must have amassed so many hours on these games.

Doom 2

There’s not much to be said about the iconic Doom. Loading this onto our PC with five floppy discs is a funny memory though. Demon killing mayhem, so awesome.

Beneath A Steel Sky

Point and click adventures were a big part of my childhood, the first I played being Monkey Island. Beneath A Steel Sky combined dark sci-fi dystopia with incredible humour and a wisecracking robot sidekick. Genius.

Half Life

Again, not much to say here. While it hasn’t aged well it was given new life by the Black Mesa reimagining. Revolutionary at its time.

Devil May Cry

The first Devil May Cry was the game I got with my PS2. Fun combat, truly imaginative monsters (the marionettes were pretty disturbing) and just an all round awesome aesthetic made this my favourite game for some time

Premiere

Amiga platformer that has been sadly forgotten, so much so I thought my memory of it was some kind of Mandela Effect because I’ve never met anyone who played. Player enters different movies to retrieve lost film reels (western, horror, sci-fi etc). Whoever did the soundtrack deserves an award.

Body Blows Galactic

Daft fighting game on the Amiga with a variety of monster fighters. Has aged horribly by today’s standards and had some very unbalanced characters, but I loved it.

Jet Set Willy

First game I ever played on the ZX Spectrum when I was about 4 years old. Showing my age a bit now…

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I think I’m on my eighth playthrough. The majority of time spent on this game has been waiting for Paarthunaxx to get to the fucking point.

Nick – Guitar

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Ultimately, this is not a very good game, however the vice grip of nostalgia is insurmountable here. Having spent many of my early childhood hours engrossed in the visually magnificent Ralph Bakshi animated Lord of the Rings film, you can imagine my excitement at being able to play as some of my favourite characters through my favourite story. This was the first video game I ever played (I was around 5 or 6 years old at the time) and I simply adore everything about it, from the occasionally (and unintentionally) hilarious voice acting to the actually pretty stunning atmosphere, it all just reminds me of being a child and being blissfully unaware of the horrors that would await us all in adulthood. The barrow wight still haunts me to this day.

Jet Set Radio Future

This was the second game I ever played, however, unlike The Lord of the Rings, this is a spectacular game. The visuals are stunning, with beautiful cel-shaded graphics that I had never seen before, the soundtrack is quirky as hell and still gets frequently circulated to this day, and the story is as strange and colourful as they come. Perhaps most importantly though, the gameplay is just so much fun. I remember growing up wanting to be a roller-blading graffiti artist in a futuristic Tokyo because of this game. Sadly that dream never truly materialised…

Fable

Without hesitation I would argue that Fable 2 is a superior game, and ultimately a game that I sunk far more hours into overall. But the series’s first entry gets the nod here on the basis of nostalgia. I adored this game from the moment I found out it existed, and to this day, Albion remains one of my favourite RPG fantasy worlds. It’s full of dry humour, engaging lore and is a visual treat even to this day, and the role playing is so engaging, especially for a 17 year old game. But I think what sets this game (and series) apart from other fantasy RPGs is that it dared to do things just a bit differently.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

As far as Star Wars content in general goes, this game is right up there with The Empire Strikes Back. I think this is perhaps the finest example of a completely new story being written within an established universe, and I honestly think the narrative is on par with, and maybe even exceeds, that of the original trilogy. The innovative combat is complex yet rewarding and on the whole, the game just feels ahead of its time, and oh boy what a twist.

Divinity Original Sin II

My absolute favourite fantasy RPG of recent years, I actually came across this game by chance and bought it in the Nintendo sale thinking it looked kinda cool. Turns out it’s an impeccable gaming experience with an outrageous amount of depth and replayability. The world is absolutely gorgeous and full of compelling characters, side quests and locations. The turn based combat is more exciting than a turn based combat system has any right to be, and the writing is phenomenal from start to finish. I’ve played through this game twice and spent more time on it than any other game on switch, which says a lot.

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings

The undisputed champion of RTS, surely. This game was both a blessing and a curse to me, as it would mean I compared all other RTS games to it and I would often spend all my time thinking ‘eh it’s good but it’s not AOE’. Honestly I think I learned more about history because of this game than I did in 5 years of history at secondary school, it was way more interesting as well, and made me actually want to learn more outside of the game. History teachers, take note.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director’s Cut

I’ll get this out of the way, I love everything about the cyberpunk genre. The aesthetic, the narrative tropes, the crap techno, everything. Human Revolution captures all these things I love about cyberpunk and delivers it in a perfectly balanced stealth game. The neo-Detroit setting dominated by all-powerful corporations, Daedalian examinations of transhumanism and an enthralling neo-noir atmosphere make this a game that eclipses pretty much anything else this oft-rehashed genre has to offer.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

A game that helped redefine the survival horror genre and one of the most unsettling ordeals I’ve ever experienced in a video game. The setting is perfect and creates an atmosphere that is absolutely haunting. The sound design and set pieces conjure a sense of dread that you never shake off throughout the entire game, and even when you’re in a safe area, you never feel anything close to ease, especially after seeing a gatherer for the first time. It’s an exceptional slice of horror that relies on skin-crawling terror rather than jump scares or gore.

Disco Elysium

Disco Elysium is all about the writing for me. This game is about 90% dialogue and attempting skill checks (sounds dull right?) and yet I’m unable to find a single game as engaging and consistently hilarious as this. The game tackles very real moral dilemmas in a fantastically surreal world and pivots between heartbreak and hilarity with equal aplomb and it currently stands as the only game I’ve ever played in which I never skipped a single line of dialogue.

Mass Effect 2

As gaming trilogies go, I think Mass Effect is as close to perfect as you can get. Yeah the ending of ME3 could have been a little more immersive and there were a few creases in ME1 that would get ironed out later in the series but ultimately, I can’t think of many fictional universes that even come close to the level of vibrance and detail that this series illustrates, the sheer level of lore is astounding. For me, this trilogy is the ultimate sci-fi gaming experience that gets every element pretty much spot on. There aren’t really enough superlatives to describe Mass Effect are there, just frickin play it alright?

Chris – Guitar

Final Fantasy VII

I’m a huge fan of the whole Final Fantasy series, so picking a favourite (single-player) entry is tough. Each of the PS1 era games (VII, VIII and IX) have a very special place in my heart, but VII just wins out – the characters are unforgettable, the soundtrack is flawless, the story is epic and the mere thought of it fills me with nostalgia. I’ve played it innumerable times, and the recent FFVII remake that they released just cemented my love of this world – I absolutely can’t wait to see what they do with the next episode of the remake!

Age of Empires II: Age of Kings

This is the king of RTS games. It’s not overly complicated, so it’s easy to pick up and get started – there are few things more satisfying than building up a huge army (usually cavalry for me) and marching into an enemy’s stronghold. I used to spend hours fortifying my base, usually by strip-mining every corner of the map and building castles every couple of metres. The story campaigns were great (albeit with silly voice acting), and really helped fuel my love of history. An intensely satisfying game all round!

Metroid Prime

This is (for my money) the best Metroid game, even when compared to the excellent Super Metroid. Claustrophobic and lonely throughout, it really evokes the feel of being a lone hunter on an alien planet. It also boasts a stunning soundtrack, and some genuinely frightening/harrowing sections – I still have nightmares about having a Metroid latch onto my face!

Stardew Valley

Wholesome all the way through. Delightful pixel artwork and nails the satisfaction of slowly building up a thriving farm – scratches the Harvest Moon itch I developed from playing the SNES game in a very satisfying way. It turns out that planting turnips and potatoes and harvesting honey can be just as satisfying as shooting monsters, who’d have thought it?

Mirror’s Edge

First person platforming doesn’t sound like it should be fun, but Mirror’s Edge nails the brief and presents a beautifully minimalist world for you to parkour through. It’s all about achieving flow state and zipping through the levels as efficiently as possible – you don’t ever need to pick up a gun, and the soundtrack (by Swedish artist Solar Fields) is flawless.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

If we’re going purely off hours played, Skyrim is second on this list – I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time running around the various domains of Skyrim, uncovering every bit of environmental storytelling, every vista and every Dwemer ruin. I know it’s a running joke that it’s been released more times than the Bible, but even in spite of all the Bethesda bugs, it remains a near-flawless experience.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

There are a lot of very good Zelda games, and I agonised over whether to include this over the psychedelic/traumatising Majora’s Mask, the pixel-perfect Link to the Past, the classic Ocarina of Time or even the sprawling ambition of Breath of the Wild. In the end, Wind Waker squeaks ahead by virtue of the sheer vibrancy and joy of its world. I can’t think about it without humming the sailing theme to myself and getting the urge to hop on board my boat and traverse the waves. The cel-shaded graphics fit the vibe of the game perfectly and it plays like a dream. Release the HD version on the Switch, Nintendo, you cowards!!

Terranigma

This is a fairly obscure little SNES action-RPG, made by Quintet/Enix well before they were absorbed by Squaresoft. You play Ark, a boy from a village inside the Earth tasked with helping our world wake up from a long apocalyptic slumber – which means you progress through history, helping humans invent things and develop civilisation. It somehow marries this with an emotive fantasy story. I can’t explain exactly how it works, but it really does, and the ending really hits home!

Final Fantasy XIV

I have poured countless hours into FFXIV, and it’s a true testament to the quality of the game that the story continues to hold up after some 200 hours. It absolutely gives you the MMO wish fulfilment of being a super-tough hero who’s saved the world multiple times, but it also spends a lot of time making you care about the NPCs your character interacts with. The Heavensward expansion made me cry, which I’d hold up as a good example of emotive videogame storytelling!

Mass Effect 3

Speaking of games that made me cry – Mass Effect 3 is right up there. The whole trilogy is fantastic, and 2 really introduces some thorny moral dilemmas for you to grapple with, but ME3 (in my opinion) absolutely brought the huge sci-fi drama of the series home. All the relationships you’ve built up over the series are tested, and you really feel the weight of the decisions you’re making. I spent way longer than I thought I would agonising over the final decision! On top of that, it plays beautifully – blowing Reapers’ heads off never felt more satisfying.

Luke – Drums

Path of Exile

I have had this as one of my main games for about 9 years. Am I obsessed? Maybe….. But this is the ARPG that just keeps giving. With their 3 month development cycle churning out new content on a regular basis, changing up metas, fleshing out all aspects of the game, there is always new stuff to try out. The game itself is free and you pay for quality of life and aesthetics so I’d strongly recommend that fans of the genre try it out if you haven’t already!

Factorio

This was my lockdown game! Basically you play a character who has crashed on a planet with hostile aliens and you need to collect resources so you can research science and build a factory, which requires more resources and complex material processing and logistic solutions which let you research more science so you can figure out how to build a rocket and GTFO. And if that’s not enough then you can always flavour the game to your liking with mods! But this game really tickled my puzzle and problem solving side. Working out optimal solutions to resourcing problems, completing the in game challenges and playing around with a mod which enables self building factories. But I’m now at the point where the game kinda feels solved to me now so I’ll wait for a big ole update before I pick it up again.

7 Days to Die

The last of my 3 regular games I have on rotation. This is probably the only 1st person game I’ve ever really enjoyed. You’re stuck in a zombie apocalypse where you go looting for stuff, build a base, do missions from a vendor and on every 7th night, you get swarmed by increasingly difficult packs of zombies. For me, this is a great combination of 1st person combat, crafting systems, looting, character skill progression, random generated open worlds, and also a great game for group play. And in case zombies aren’t tough enough for you, you can always try to pick a fight with a zombie bear!

Guitar Hero 3

It just has to be on the list. I saved my pocket money for ages to get a Nintendo Wii, and eventually was able to get guitar hero and it just introduced me to so much good music as I’m sure is the case for a lot of my generation. Funnily enough, we also got further iterations of the games with e-drums and despite being a drummer, I could never get the hang of guitar hero drums as easily as could the guitar hero guitar! But so many hours were spent on this and its various iterations and despite being booed off stage repeatedly, it was always great fun and an exciting way to discover new music.

Star Wars: Empire at War

I loved strategy games. But what if your military force could include a Death Star? This and the newer (but still hella old) counterpart Forces of Corruption let you conquer the galaxy. But what really stood out is the way the main game pauses every time a planet is invaded and you move to a skirmish where you forget about your whole galactic conquest and focus on what can be really detailed attacks on land and in space. I think it’s a shame that this game hasn’t had any more developments as there is so much which could be added with since the newer films and series have come out.

Empire Earth 2

Another strategy game! For me this game has to be in here primarily because of one playthrough in particular where I nearly got wiped off the map right at the start by those pesky AIs. But some villagers escaped across seas to the opposite corners where I managed to build back up from nothing, until the end of the game where me and one AI had half the map each and there was a constant back and forth where neither side would make significant dents in the other, no matter how many futuristic laser-wielding robot tanks and nuclear weapons we threw at each other. Obviously I won in the end, but it was the most fun RTS playthrough I’ve ever experienced.

Pokemon Sapphire

Back to the good ole GameBoy Advanced. This was the first and probably the only Pokemon game I ever properly played. Looking back, this seemed to be a well designed game with so many puzzles and quests. I even remember having to learn Braille to figure out the codes to find some of the secret uniques.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

I haven’t actually played a lot of this game, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the time I have put into it. The way in which they managed to implement the turn based combat allows you to put the time in to come up with well thought out approaches without losing the tension and pressure of the fight. Personally I loved my snipers, but there were so many ways you could kit out your task force depending on playstyle preference.

Space Engineers

It’s Minecraft in space! Well, kind of. Honestly I just really enjoyed designing ridiculous spacecraft in sandbox mode, duplicating them, and flying them into each other! My favourite creation was definitely the donut spaceship. But this game also allows for some interesting use of logic to control various actuators based on sensors that you can install. In particular there is a unit which lets you automate functions using C# code so I actually started learning a bit of C# because of this game.

Code Combat

Similar to how Space Engineers got me to learn C#, this game is actually entirely based around learning to code. Players implement code in the language of their choosing to program a character to do a task in a competitive setting against other players. I basically taught myself Javascript fundamentals by playing this game and coming up with new ways to solve problems giving the limit of how much code you were allowed in the programs. It’s super nerdy, but this has to be on the list because I found it so much, and it is a great way to learn a skill which can actually be useful (unlike shooting zombies with a mouse and WASD….)
March 1, 2022

WE’RE ON YOUTUBE

After months of talking about it, we’re finally launching our YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe to us there to see rig rundowns, interviews, song playthroughs and more from us.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcUf3618RTXw_eN92Y5X7yw
January 5, 2021

Albums of the Year 2020

Well, what a year that was… Trying for all, but at least music is always there for us. We’ve picked some of our personal favourites from 2020 below, with a track from each in the Spotify playlist, too. Please enjoy this – it was painful.

Nick – Guitar

It was very considerate of music to continue being excellent in spite of that bug that’s been going round. I managed quite a lot of new albums this year and found making this list as difficult as ever. As such this isn’t a definitive top 10 for me, and many are interchangeable with others that I haven’t mentioned, but I wanted to include some albums that maybe didn’t get as much recognition as they deserved alongside some albums which definitely got plenty of recognition.

10. Respire – Black Line

A late cat thrown amongst the pigeons. Having pretty much decided on the ten albums I wanted to talk about, I then listened to this album in mid-December and had to reconsider my decision. This is what post-metal is all about. It sounds like absolutely nothing else, the use of orchestral instrumentation is inspired and a driving aspect of their songwriting, and the emotional rawness is truly biting. A one of a kind album.

9. Loathe – I Let It In And It Took Everything

Without doubt my most repeated album of the year. This record combines the best of noisy prog-metalcore and passive, post-Deftones daydreaming. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the future belongs to bands like this, and I will be dumbfounded if we don’t see them at forefront of modern metal in years to come.

8. Charli XCX – How I’m Feeling Now

It’s like she somehow distilled the very essence of insomnia and cabin fever into a neon-pop wonderland. I’ve loved everything Charli has released since Pop2 and as far as I’m concerned, she is going from strength to strength.

7. clipping. – Visions of Bodies Being Burned

I listened to this album twice in a row and I think I’m going to go and listen to it now. In fact I think I’ve listened to this album nearly every time I’ve been reminded of its existence. Their brand of experimental hip-hop is dark, scary, and magnetically illustrative, and each track feels like you’re trapped in a short horror film.

6. Envy – The Fallen Crimson

This is an album that brought me back to emo. Emotionally devastating, The Fallen Crimson is a panoramic collection of angst, wistful rumination, aggressive noise, and some of the best riffs to come out of this sordid year.

5. Motorpsycho – The All Is One

What a journey this album is. It truly fits the stereotype of psychedelic prog that rapidly gets out of hand to the point at which you don’t know how long you’ve been listening to it or indeed what day it is. I mean that in the best possible way. Having only begun listening to this band earlier this year, I was simultaneously ecstatic and horrified to discover how much excellent music this band has released that I’m now going to have to listen to. Having too much good music really is the best problem one can have.

4. Relic Point – Self Punishment

Oh boy, if someone asked me what an amalgamation of Primitive Man and Car Bomb would sound like I couldn’t tell them, but I would want to know, and now I do know, and it is good.

3. Demersal – Less

My chaotic, sludgy screamo album of the year. It’s the sound of grief in a hornets nest. It’s the sound of death made of out of a thousand broken bottles. It makes me feel cold and empty and like I want to attack things with sandpaper.

2. Run The Jewels – RTJ4

What can I say about this album that hasn’t already been said? This is a defining album, perhaps THE defining album of modern solidarity. History will remember it as a phenomenal hip-hop album, and a tragic commentary on 21st century racism.

1. Oranssi Pazuzu – Mestarin Kynsi

I echo the sentiment I previously made regarding the Motorpsycho album. By the end I had little memory of the past hour beyond a hazy black void that felt like the fabric of the universe was being fed through a paper shredder. But again, in a good way.

Richard – Bass

In 2020 I listened to 77 new albums, which is a record for me and one I’m pretty proud of, especially as someone who doesn’t really use streaming services. Of that number, there are honestly about 30 that could have made my top ten, but the ones that came closest were Kelly Lee Owens, Craven Faults, Sunken, Purity Ring, Calligram, Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou, Sons of a Wanted Man, Hum, Ocoeur, naisian and Bosphorous. Yes, I am aware that list itself is more than ten – I am an indecisive bastard.

10. Julianna Barwick – Healing is a Miracle

The first of several artists in my top ten who were actually new to me in 2020 entirely, Barwick’s trade is in reverb-soaked, ambient-adjacent chamber folk, and this new album is rife with gorgeous atmosphere and an enveloping lushness that is truly beautiful. There are even a few electronic beats this time round, and it’s all otherworldly.

9. clipping. – Visions of Bodies Being Burned

clipping. are now an unstoppable force in experimental hip-hop, and their rising status among music fans of all stripes could hardly be more deserved. Probably more abrasive and built on more disturbing and noisy samples than 2019’s equally brilliant outing, this is hip-hop pushed to its outer limits whilst still heaping on loads of dark grooves and sick flows.

8. Wren – Groundswells

Despite being aware of them for ages, 2020 was the first year I invested any time into listening to Wren, following our gig with them in January and then them signing with our friends Gizeh Records. Their sound comes largely from the doomiest pages of the Cult of Luna post metal playbook, but they’re driven forwards by powerful (and audible) basslines and inventive drumming, plus a deadly crush of tone.

7. A.A. Williams – Forever Blue

Whilst I enjoyed the 2019 self-titled EP, this album really surprised me with how much I loved it. It takes the despondent singer-songwriter-meets-shoegazey-post-rock vibe from that first release and adds some climactic moments of truly dense metal weight, some subtle Radiohead-like moments of sparse and beguiling melody, and wraps it all up with a wonderful ear for a downbeat but catchy hook.

6. Vile Creature – Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm!

Vile Creature are another band I took a long overdue first dive into during 2020, and even in my limited experience this feels like their crowning achievement to date. They already had their suffocatingly heavy, tectonic doom groove nailed before this record, but the inclusion of choral vocals in the latter half and more guitar layers than you can shake a stick at lend this a much more majestic and even liturgical feel.

5. Grimes – Miss Anthropocene

Combining the more overtly pop-focused sounds of the still admittedly offbeat Art Angels album and reintroducing more of the trademark idiosyncrasies from her previous work, Grimes managed to put out one of her finest works whilst also taking up a lot of space in the music press for many reasons over the course of the year. The biggest bangers here have her cleanest production yet, but it’s all shot through with endearing darkness and a sense of the futility of fighting our technocratic future.

4. Kairon; IRSE! – Polysomn

Spoiler: the Oranssi Pazuzu camp really knocked it out of the park in 2020. Kairon; IRSE!, their prog/psych/shoegaze offshoot, seemed to come back to earth at least little bit after the exuberant 70s worship of their previous album. The heavier, more dense guitar layers from their earlier work are back, combining with some continuing joyful experimentation and a dizzying world of sound that is all their own.

3. Svalbard – When I Die, Will I Get Better?

Svalbard are another band I shamefully only paid proper attention to in 2020, despite having seen them live twice at festivals – I know, what was I thinking? Still based in the mixed hardcore, black metal and post metal elements they were already known for, this new album sees a marked increase in dreamy, melodic post rock passages a-la Alcest, which suits them perfectly and adds an almost regal quality to these already powerful songs. Add that to a reliably direct and wholly justified lyrical vitriol towards misogyny and other social injustice and you have a guaranteed winner that will get you riled for all the right reasons.

2. Oranssi Pazuzu – Mestarin Kynsi

A lot has been said about this album since it’s release, but it’s all true – it really is that good. They’ve pushed all their psychedelic and kraut-y tendencies to new extremes and their patented vortex of swirling black metal and bad trip vibes has never been so compelling.

1. Farer – Monad

A very late surprise discovery for me, thanks to a post from our friends at 9hz, I only listened to this album just before Christmas when I thought I had my list near completion. After two spins, however, this shook me to the core and felt custom made for me. With no guitars and two basses, this is a slow motion, molten creation of low-end rumble, filthy noise, and building-levelling riffs. Topped off with a harrowing shriek, it’s like someone injected Amenra with heroin and stole all their ‘clean’ channel switches. Utterly devastating and a new favourite band.

Luke – Drums

So my list might be a bit different to Nick and Richard’s because after going through my music I can only find 7 albums which I’ve listened to which came out this year, so clearly I need to up my game next year but I still probably won’t! I’ve given a nice big blurb for the top 3 and then a smaller bleugh for the other 4. ENJOY!

7. Nightwish – Human. :||: Nature

I do have a soft spot for Nightwish and orchestral music in general and this was their release this year. It doesn’t quite tickle the spot that Imaginareum, Dark Passion Play, or Endless Forms Most Beautiful did, but it is still a beautifully composed bit of orchestral metal.

6. Ensiferum – Thalassic

This is a great album which honestly I haven’t given the amount of time it deserves. Ensiferum have come back with an absolute belter of heavy, Finnish Folk metal.

5. Jack Gardiner – Escapades

Similar to Plini this is another vituosic guitar player writing groovy, funky, instrumental tracks which I am just totally down with.

4. Plini – Impulse Voices

This album is relatively new for me so I’m still absorbing it but Plini is just incredible and this album continues to prove it.

3. Arch Echo – Story I

Arch Echo also happen to be one of the last bands I saw live in the ‘before time’…. and over lockdown I even bagged myself a spot on one of the drummers masterclass sessions! But to get to the point: this EP is just what I’d expect from Arch Echo. Another amazing selection of instrumental, djenty, groovy, funky-ass tracks (not to be confused with funky ass-tracks). This band have never disappointed me since I discovered them at TechFest many years ago now and immediately fell in love with them. Their music, talent, joy, and energy is so palpable and I just can’t get enough of it.

2. Dirty Loops – Phoenix

Again, this band have come up for me in the Ba’al monthly musings very frequently, and deservingly. With this EP the trio yet again manage to blow my mind with musicianship and pure talent. In particular, the track “World on Fire” has what I would be confident to describe as the best bass solo I’ve ever heard in a song. But the other aspects of the music are by no means overshadowed by this, and they all pull together to create the incredible jazz, fusion, pop sound that just will not let you be sad!

1. Igorrr – Spirituality and Distortion

Honestly I’ve listened through this album so much and know it so well by now that I was shocked to be reminded that it only came out this March. I’ve also been blabbering on about it on the Ba’al Monthly listenings! But this album is such an amazing musical journey through varying tones, timbres, and time signatures. For me it contains some of the best elements of djent, orchestral, electronic, operatic, and progressive music in a continuously evolving and flowing masterpiece.
November 6, 2020

Ellipsism Track-by-Track Guide

Ellipsism has now been out for a week and the response has been phenomenal. Thank you all for listening and buying it – we really appreciate your support. You can pick it up from https://cvltofbaal.bandcamp.com/album/ellipsism, or get it on any of your usual streaming/purchasing services.

Now that it is out in the world and available to your ears, we thought we’d take a more detailed look at each track and share some insights into the writing process. In Ba’al, each band member has full creative control over their own instrumental or vocal parts and we all have input into the writing of every song, but here we outline the genesis of some of the riff ideas and some of the challenges we faced in writing them.

Long Live

This is the oldest song on the album; we actually started writing it with a very different lineup back in 2018, after the release of ‘Thy Sorrow’. We finalised it when Joe first joined the band, and we’ve been playing it live at almost every show since he started performing with us in the middle of that year.

The writing of this song was a real collaboration between Tom, Nick and Richard’s riffs. The opening black metal riff (which comes back later) is one that Tom had had kicking around for years before he joined Ba’al. The drone section and clean riff in the odd time signature was penned by Nick. The big groove riff was Richard’s. Of course we all layered our own parts of the top of each, and we fleshed out the riffs in between those three main ones all together in the room. It’s also the first song that Joe wrote lyrics for in Ba’al, and it’s metaphors about life after the death of a mad monarch are something we all relate to in one way or another.

An Orchestra of Flies

This track was an example of a song being brought to the practice room largely fully formed already, in this case by Richard who had all the main riffs and the general structure planned out at home. The exception to that is the big drum fill/bass slide and the little chordy bit right before them, which was an idea that came from Tom in the room. The drawn-out ending was originally conceived just as a slow, simple Amenra-like dirge, but the lead part that Tom layered on top adds a level of melody that we didn’t originally think could fit there.

On this one we get both doomier than we have been in some time and also play the fastest blast riff we’ve come up with to date – thanks in no small part to our insanely proficient drummer Luke, who joined the band as we were writing this track.

Joe’s lyrics here deal largely with suicidal thoughts and ideation.

XIV – I – MMXIX

The three interlude tracks on the album were known simply as “Richard’s interlude”, “Nick’s interlude” and “Tom’s interlude” up until after the recording was finished, when Joe devised the titles – this is Richard’s. The central, reverby bass motif was something Richard came up with whilst pissing about in between jams in an old practice room several years ago. He held onto it until it felt like it fitted somewhere, and realised that it could be shifted to match the key and intro of Jouska. The tremolo viola was an idea thrown out at random in the studio, and Nick’s reverse-delayed guitar parts were also pretty much devised by Nick and Richard on the spot.

Jouska

The genesis of this one also came from Richard, who had written what we called ‘the Deftones riff’ back in about 2017; this became the ‘chorus’ riff for Jouska, if you can really call it that. It’s one of the most consistently melodic tracks on the album, with lots of interweaving harmonies amongst the guitar lines and plenty of post-rock/shoegaze vibes. That said, we tried to balance it out with some proper dirgy slow parts and a chunky riff in the middle.

Though the first two-thirds of the riffs came from Richard, he never had an ending in mind, so Nick stepped in and brought things to a conclusion with the last few riffs, which range from polyrhythmic head-nodders through tight chugging rhythms and out into a final emotive chord structure. We reshuffled all the sections quite a lot of times in the room before we finalised this one. This track also has some of the most shining examples of Tom penning both really textural guitar lines and also soaring leads which flesh out all the different sections.

The word ‘Jouska’ refers to hypothetical conversations that you play out in your own head of situations that have not happened. We debuted this track live at our one gig this year, in January supporting Wren.

III – II – MMIIII

This was “Nick’s interlude”, as the desolate central guitar line was all his. The idea of really distorted, distant drums also came from Nick very early on, and we worked with Joe Clayton in the studio to find just the right combination of effects. Again the viola was Richard semi-improvising on the fly in the studio, and ended up being more of a prominent feature than we had anticipated.

Tarred and Feathered

This was by far the hardest songwriting process we’ve had to date – we were very thankful that it ended up staying as comparatively short as it did. Nick had the long black metal section and the slower beatdown riff floating around the practice room for some time, and we tried many times to bolt various different ideas and riffs to them to make them into a full song and also make them fit together. We really struggled to find a tempo, too, with each one we tried working well for one riff and not another, and we also kept switching between having the track be in 6/8 time and 4/4 time. Several times we considered either scrapping the song entirely or splitting up the ideas into more than one track.

After lots of work with other ideas, Tom wrote the opening riff which really helped things. Then, in the end, we decided we’d attempt a full tempo change mid song, which we’ve never done in quite such a drastic way as this. It felt like the only way we could play all the riffs we wanted to at the speed they felt right at, and amazingly we think we pulled it off. Once we’d made that decision, we were able to fill in some gaps by teasing the slow riffs in the fast part and vice-versa. We finalised the arrangement only about 2 weeks before we entered the studio, with Tom and Nick adding and subtracting sections every week, much to the annoyance of Joe who had to keep changing his lyrics to fit.

We had a lot of fun making the end of this one as nasty as possible, with the bizarre counts between notes becoming a fun little maths puzzle we all had trouble remembering. There’s also an egg shaker in the mix somewhere around the middle of the track – listen out.

Father, the Sea, the Moon

This is another one we’ve played live a fair few times since probably early 2019. The genesis of this one came from Tom, who also came up with the title and general concept of lyrics about childhood memories and their links to specific important places in your life.

The very textural intro passage of Tom’s contrasts nicely with his lumbering, opening riff, which suddenly drops away to virtually nothing – this is another challenge we’ve never really taken on thus far. The myriad guitar harmonies that layer over this early slow riff were partially made up on the day in the studio.

The song progresses through more of Tom’s slow but chord-heavy riffs, through a black metal passage written in tandem with Nick, and finally into a typically post rockl build-up, whose chords were written by Nick with Tom floating his own leads over the top.

X – I – MCMXCII

This was devised as “Tom’s interlude”, as his purely ambient piece was not necessarily going to have vocals originally. All the music here comes from Tom’s guitar run through myriad effects pedals; of course there are plenty of delays and reverbs, but there’s also some magic going on via a bass synthesiser pedal and also the truly insane Earthquaker Devices Rainbow Machine (it’s also on various other songs on the album, believe it or not). There’s only a couple of different guitar tracks layered here to create this sparse but enveloping ambience.

The spoken word piece was written by Joe and done in a single emotional take late one night in the studio. He decided to give it a go pretty much on the fly, and it ended up bringing something really special to the track.

Rosalia

Nick’s long, slow introductory riff here is obviously something of a departure for us, but we’d been wanting to do something super sparse like this for a very long time. Working out just how much drums, bass, viola and extra guitar layers to put in here to add to the atmosphere without taking away from the sparse feel was a challenge we grappled with in the practice room for a long time. Funnily enough, the idea to introduce a distant distorted guitar track (which comes in at the same time as the snare drum) came from an early demo where Nick pressed his distortion pedal by mistake and quite liked it.

The transition from this passage into the first ‘big riff’ was one we deliberated over for a long time, auditioning lots of different ideas before we settled on this Alcest-y one as a way to move from one vibe to a very different one. That big, elephantine riff itself was one of Tom’s that we’d been gagging to fit in somewhere for months, so it was great to finally give it a home.

The very drawn out, emotive chord sequence that comprises most of the second half was also Nick’s, but all of us spent a long time working out which layers of which instruments to add, take away or change to make it the right length and also with just the right amount of variation. Similarly, when Richard wrote the viola parts in the studio, it was a fine line to tread between SubRosa and Pirates of the Caribbean. There’s so many layers going on in this section that it could easily have fallen apart – hopefully we got it right in the end.

The very dramatic end of the track was a fairly last minute additional riff from Tom, giving Joe the time to tie things up with a few final lyrics summarising the incredibly personally emotive lyrics of love and loss.
January 6, 2020

Albums of the Year 2019

Last year was a big one for music, sounds and noises. Below you’ll find Nick, Richard, Tom and Joe’s picks of the bunch, after hours and hours of pain in stripping the lists down to a measly 5. We’ve also got one track on from each release in a handy little Spotify playlist…

Nick – Guitar

This was a very strong year and putting this list together was very difficult (isn’t it always?). I only undertook the voyage into 2019’s back catalogue in mid-November, so I’m pleased I managed to squeeze around 140 in before the year was out. Several honourable mentions this year including Alcest, Cult of Luna, Cranial, Violet Cold, Mizmor, Ultar, Oh Sees, The Grey, Skepta, Seizures, Rorcal, Anderson Paak, Billie Eilish, Boris, Charli XCX, Hannah Diamond, Herod, Hobo Johnson and the list goes on and on. Here’s the five I wanted to mention in particular.

5. Norma Jean – All Hail

A slightly tongue in cheek album title perhaps? Regardless of intention, it’s an apt name for a now legendary metalcore band showing us how it’s done.

4. James Blake – Assume Form

A typically strong outing from the James the Blake with consistently compelling features. Considerably more pastel coloured than his previous releases (he’s not miserable as fuck anymore) and with that it’s one of the most interesting alt-pop records of recent years.

3. Sūrya – Solastalgia

This one took pole in my very tight post-metal round-up. Cult of Luna, Alcest and Cranial all came close but none of them drew my undivided attention quite like this. Essential listening for any fan of the aforementioned bands and the wider post-metal world.

2. 65daysofstatic – replicr, 2019

A bleak Orwellian nightmare is the perfect soundtrack for the future, now that we live in a bleak Orwellian nightmare under the fat blonde goblin.

1. Lankum – The Livelong Day

Incredible follow up to their similarly incredible second album. It’s difficult for me to describe this album, as I make no claim to being a connoisseur of Irish folk. What I can say is that there is a brooding intensity to this album, a grim foreboding the likes of which you might otherwise hear on a Sunn O))) album. In a pinch I’d say this is my album of the year.

Richard – Bass

I’m notoriously useless at keeping up with new music, and spend far more of my time digging into old things I’ve missed over the years, but this list was a fun excercise in trying to catch up. Although it’s nothing on Nick’s total, I managed 30 albums from 2019, which is loads for me. About 15-20 of them could have made the top 5, but ones that came especially close were Cult of Luna, HANA, Max Cooper, N/UM, New Ghost, Earth & Pillars, A-Sun Amissa, Mic Reckless and White Ward.

5. Earth Moves – Human Intricacy

Ever since I first saw them in 2017, Earth Moves have been one of my favourite UK heavy bands, and their second album near enough manages the seemingly impossible task of matching the quality of their first. No one else dares to get so rawly emotional and dynamic with post metal, and if anything there’s more variety and power this time around.

4. Archivist – Triumvirate

A massive step up from the second record which was a bit of a mis-step in my opinion, Archivist have returned to doing post-black metal better than almost anyone else. Two vocalists (with both clean and harsh vocals), lush chord progressions and, crucially, plenty of straight-up battery, all topped off with frontman Alex CF’s brilliant artwork. In truth, you need to check out the full trilogy.

3. FKA Twigs – Magdalene

It took me ages to get around to this one after both Nick and my girlfriend told me for months that I’d love it – they weren’t wrong. This is pop music twisted into bizarre shapes, retaining the hooks and beats that keep you plugged in. It’s one of those records that reveals more every time. Highly recommended.

2. Lingua Ignota – Caligula

Speaking of twisting things into painful shapes, Lingua Ignota’s voice is just something else. There’s a lot more to digest here than on her first outing, but once you put in the time, it’s incredibly powerful. Classical meets noise meets drone meets metal meets liturgical music meets abject pain meets fear of god meets brutal revenge on all those who have wronged you. See her live, you won’t be the same afterwards.

1. Dizraeli – The Unmaster

Continuing to prove himself a totally unique voice in UK hip-hop (/folk/experimental/spoken word/something/everything), this one caught me totally by surprise with how much I loved it. It’s so eclectic, personal and powerful, whilst also being full of danceable bangers. Dizraeli’s own flow is only getting stronger with time, and it sits at the centre of a wild symphony of electronic and acoustic instruments, plus some totally out there vocal performances.

Tom – Guitar

There were many that could have been on this list and a few that were very close, including Cave In… As much as I love ‘Final Transmission’, you can’t help the feeling that it could have been so much more if it wasn’t for the sad passing of Caleb. Russian Circles, Torche, Iggy Pop and A-Sun Amissa were all standouts and in that order would round out a top 10, but these are the 5 that really grabbed me this time round.

5. Boris – LφVE & EVφL

Walls of fuzz and noise collide with a surprising dash of calm and quiet. What’s not to love.

4. Cult of Luna – A Dawn to Fear

Monolithic riffs combine with atmospheric passages in ways nobody else can manage.

3. Mono – Nowhere Now Here

A masterpiece of soundscape, texture and expression, with a depth lost on so many other bands of their ilk over the years. Spanning fragile to bombastic walls of sound effortlessly.

2. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Ghosteen

Stripped bare compared to early Bad Seeds material and continuing on from the last couple of releases this is as beautiful as it is dark and haunted by loss. Was my album of the year for a long time until…

1 . 65daysofstatic – Replicr, 2019

I don’t really know how to describe this record. Each and every time it gives up a bit more from the vast soundscapes within that feel more like one vast piece than individual tracks. Just stunning.

Joe – Vocals

I’ve been a bit out of the loop on newer music this year; most of what I’ve heard has been random bits of obscure black metal performed in deep, dark Siberian woodland, recorded onto a potato by hedgehogs that probably have unconfirmed but potentially troubling political ideaologies…. So instead of trawling through reems of spikey logo’d bands that sound like dense atmospheres within a tub of particularly evil marmalade, I’ve picked out the stuff that others may have actually heard of. Honourable mentions go to Mayhem’s album ‘Daemon’ for being better than expected and Slipknot’s ‘We Are Not Your Kind’ for it’s grade D at GCSE graphics artwork and, despite being aggravatingly underwhelming, still supplying me with an adequate coaster for my mug of fancy pants coffee.

5. Cattle Decapitation – Death Atlas

The best album since the game changing Monolith of Inhumanity. Further experimentation, diversity and even a sense of emotion rarely experienced in tech death.

4. Mgla – Age of Excuse

Released to almost zero fanfare this album just turned up one day. A powerful follow up the the masterpiece that was “Exercises in Futility”.

3. Veldes – Flameless

More spectacular atmosphere from Slovenias workhorse black metallers.

2. Blut Aus Nord – Hallucinogen

Coming somewhat out of left field this album is a mind bending experience that demonstrates Blut Aus Nords progression along with their spacey cosmic trademark.

1. Grima – Will of the Primordial

Extremely cold atmospheric black metal that truly resonates a sense of eternal winter.
August 6, 2019

Welcome

Welcome to the brand new blog of Ba’al, a 5-piece blackened post metal band from Sheffield.

This is where we’ll be sharing some of our personal thoughts, musical recommendations and influences, chatting about gear, writing and recording, as well as dumping any other random detritus that comes to our heads. We hope you enjoy it.

For more regular updates regarding upcoming shows and other news, you can find our social media links at the top or bottom of the page, depending on if you are on a computer or mobile. You can check out our music on BandCamp (where you can also purchase it, along with merch), as well as on Spotify and most other streaming services.

For now, keep an eye on us here for some deep dives into our five strange brains. Strap in.

All the best.

Richard, Nick, Tom, Joe and James.